The Dresden Dolls Aren't Avril Lavigne

05/10/06 7:30pm

by Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack)

The relationship between a band and their fans can be a very intense and complicated thing. This seems to be particularly true in the case of The Dresden Dolls. Whether they're encouraging participation in their live events through a worldwide network of performers known as "The Brigade," or using submissions from fans for the artwork of their new Yes, Virginia album, the cabaret punk duo have always cultivated a deep connection with their listeners.

"I think I'm a personal songwriter, and I love having as close to what I can find for personal relationships with our fans," says singer Amanda Palmer. "I didn't want to just start a band. I always wanted to throw a party.

"On one side, I was a songwriter. On the other, I was a person who really wanted to create an artistic world around me. And I found a way to sort of meld those two things together via the vehicle of the band, and it was really beautiful, lucky happenstance that it occurred that way. I'm not the sort of writer that writes for the sake of writing. I write for the joy of being able to take those songs out and perform them, so the fans are everything in that respect. They create the band by just being an audience."

When such a close bond exists, though, some fans are bound to get a little possessive. The Dresden Dolls have been receiving increasingly more mainstream attention since opening for Nine Inch Nails last year, and not everyone is happy with the subsequent change in the audience demographic. Once the refuge of goths and art nerds, Dolls shows are now more of a populist — and younger — affair.

"We have a really broad appeal, and it pisses a lot of people off because everyone wants us to be special," Palmer admits. "We're stuck in a really interesting spot where we're getting younger and younger and younger fans, and I wonder and I worry if the fact that we've got so many young, fanatic junior high school and high school kids loving the band is going to alienate people who might not venture into our music, not even try to take it seriously.

"Cause it's not fucking Avril Lavigne. It's not aimed at a 14-year-old. It's aimed right back at myself. I would assume that someone my age would really connect with this music. But it's just that sort of thing where I go, 'Oh my God, we created a monster.'"

If a recent altercation on the band's message board is any indication, there's hope that old and new fans can co-exist. When a video of fresh-scrubbed, Laguna Beach-style teenagers singing along to the band's "Coin Operated Boy" surfaced on YouTube, it sent many of the gloomy faithful into an angry tizzy. But the vicious attacks soon turned into something more positive.

"The most amazing thing about that that was so great was that it started a discussion that was real," Palmer enthuses. "It made all of these kids whose first reaction was to get on the internet and say, 'Oh, that fucking sucks! These people aren't real fans. They don't know what good music is. They don't really love the Dresden Dolls...'

"All of those kids had to kind of reconsider where they were coming from because I was able to get on there and talk about it. The girl in the video was able to get on there and talk about it. And all of a sudden, you've got people thinking. And how fucking awesome is that?"